Capabilities
by FluffyShrekGirl
Summary: After killing the entire Uchiha clan... after killing his own parents... why spare his foolish little brother?


Capabilities

DISCLAIMER: Well, this is a new one for me. I don't own Naruto or any of the characters used hereafter. If I did, there would be more episodes about Shikamaru, who is cool. Fanfiction about Itachi today. The entirety of the dialogue is taken from Naruto episode 84, so guess what, I don't own. Hope you like it.

(Nii-san brother)

I sit in the shadows at the edge of the room, carefully wiping my blade clean. Blood is always a difficult thing to clean off, although it's much easier if it's fresh blood.

I can hear his feet as he runs from room to room, calling for mother and father.

It won't be long now.

I know it when he hesitates right outside the door. He's willing himself to _move_, to go in and confront whatever's inside. It's something he always does when he's afraid.

The doors eventually creak slowly open. As he runs towards our mother and father, lying dead on the hardwood floor, I stand, and move out of the shadows to meet him.

The last Uchiha.

Apart from me, of course. But then, there are laws against suicide.

"Nii-san… nii-san, father and mother were…"

He still doesn't understand. Even seeing me, standing over their bodies like some kind of gloating, vengeful demon, he hasn't yet realised…

"Why… why?"

Under my sleeve I finger the shuriken I have ready. The last Uchiha. The last test. My little brother.

He lifts his face to mine, pleading, as though I can somehow undo everything, fix everything.

"Who did this?"

Sasuke, you have a lot to learn.

I let the shuriken fly. It should have hit him directly in the centre of his chest, but I see it rip past him and bury itself in the wall behind him. There is a spray of blood from his left arm, and he winces and clasps his hand to it.

He never moved, and yet I was unable to hit him. I have perfect aim… he should be dead.

His voice breaks into my questioning thoughts. "Nii-san, what are you…?"

I just look at him. I can feel the Sharingan still gathered behind my eyes, and I train that unique sight on him, betraying no hint of emotion.

He stares at me, still confused, and then finishes his question.

"What are you doing, nii-san,?"

I still do not understand why my shuriken missed. I look at him and feel cold fury gathering. Why could I not just _kill_ him…?

"Foolish little brother."

I close my eyes deliberately. This is the moment I must use. I could not kill him… but there are worse things that death, and I must…

I force my eyes open again. There is an almost unnoticeable pulse of energy in the room, and, with unusual difficulty, almost spitting the words, I speak.

"Mangekyou Sharingan!"

My eyes widen, and he is there. In that world where the sky turns red and time stands still, moves backwards. Negativity rules here, the negative of everything you have ever believed about the world. The light is oddly bright, and the darkness is fathomless.

I am not with him. I am in that cold room in our family home, watching him look around wildly with unseeing eyes as in his head the clan dies around him. Every time he whimpers or cries out, I know that another Uchiha has fallen. At one point he screams, a long-drawn out scream, and begs me to stop, not to let him see this. That's when I know he has understood what it is I am showing him.

He speaks, trying to speak to me, to ask me why… then another scream. And then two words…

"Mister, Auntie!"

My hands suddenly begin to shake. I know exactly what he is seeing. I have known throughout the vision, but this point comes to me more clearly than any other. His favourite people, apart from mother and father…

"Father, mother… don't, nii-san! Don't do that to father and mother!"

And me. Of course.

He screams once more, his hands to his head, and then drops to his knees with a single sob. I feel the Sharingan fade abruptly. He falls to the floor and lies there breathing heavily. Yet he can still speak, and he asks me the question he has asked throughout.

"Why… why did you…?"

I clench and unclench my fists once to stop the shaking, and then answer softly, evenly:

"To see what I was capable of."

He cannot comprehend this. He has no way of understanding. He is not like me. I doubt he ever could be.

"What you were capable of… was that it? You killed everyone for that reason?"

I can see by the way his lips are beginning to twist that his anger is appearing. Foolish Sasuke… you will never understand the need to test one's capabilities. How it comes before all else. I respond with simplicity.

"It is important."

He slowly pushes himself upwards. "What the hell…?" Suddenly he rushes at me. "Don't screw around!"

I can already feel another shuriken under my sleeve, but instead, without thinking about it, I disable him with a swift punch to his solar plexus. He coughs sharply as the air is thrust out of his lungs. He hangs motionless on my fist for a few seconds, then collapses to the floor. When he opens his eyes he is face to face with father.

I step forward, but he crawls away, pulling himself to his feet, then runs through the door with a cry. "Don't kill me!"

I hear him panting and crying. Following the sound I am able to head him off. I stop to look at him. Tears have run down his face and are hanging off his jaw. He is terrified.

My final test.

"Don't kill me…" he half-whispers.

The shuriken is still in my hand.

"You are not even worth killing." I answer cruelly, furious with him, furious with myself. "Foolish little brother… if you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me… and survive in an unsightly way. Run. Run and cling to life."

I turn and walk away from the devastation, leaving the only other living Uchiha shaking and watching me leave. After killing them all… proving my capability to crush my emotion even when faced with my parents… I could not kill him.

I was not capable.

Not yet.

A/N: Very sombre. Please review and tell me what you think. I'm considering adding other chapters conveying Itachi's thoughts about Sasuke in other episodes, like the episode after this one, so please tell me also if you think I should leave it here or write the other chapters. No smileys with this one – it's too dark.


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